Doctor Assisted Suicide

REGARDING THE Sound Off on doctor-assisted suicide and the sample responses from callers presented in the Sentinel, one response that seems to repeat itself is ''Only God should decide when death should occur.''This is such nonsense in today's modern medical practice, which includes 911 personnel responding to emergency calls, jump-starting hearts that have stopped beating for God knows how long. I have heard that the only time emergency crews will not try jump-starting a person is if the head has been detached from the body.

NATION HELENA, Mont. - The Montana Supreme Court saidThursday that nothing in state law prevents patients from seeking physician-assisted suicide, making Montana the third state that will allow the procedure. Patients and doctors had been waiting for the state's high court to step inafter a lower court decided a year ago that constitutional rights to privacy and dignity protect the right to die. The Montana Supreme Court opinion will now give doctors in the state the freedomto prescribe the necessary drugs to mentally competent, terminally ill patients without fear of being prosecuted, advocates said.

SAN FRANCISCO - Most Californians would offer terminally ill patients the option of doctor-assisted suicide, according to a poll released Friday. ``These poll results show that an overwhelming majority of Californians - 71 percent - believe physician-assisted dying should be an available option for mentally competent, terminally ill patients,'' said Dr. Fred Marcus, president of the San Mateo, Calif.,-based Death with Dignity National Center. The poll, conducted by a Santa Monica-based firm, was released at the start of the California Conference on Physician Assisted Dying.

PARIS -- The Netherlands' main legislative body Tuesday approved a bill making mercy killing and doctor-assisted suicide far easier, once again displaying the Dutch penchant for pushing the boundaries of conventional thinking on controversial social topics. Tuesday's vote, by the lower house of parliament, would essentially legalize what has in fact been a longstanding practice in the Netherlands. Doctors are rarely prosecuted for performing assisted suicides for terminally ill patients, but the new law would lay out guidelines to regulate the termination of life.

This time the words seem almost understated. ''Groundbreaking'' and ''landmark'' barely describe how much the top-ography has now changed, how deeply the American landscape of dying is being re-contoured.In Oregon, the people have taken death in their own hands. For the second time in three years, they have voted in favor of legalizing doctor-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients.Just three years ago, a controversial referendum passed by a slim margin of 2 percent. But this year, a heavily financed attempt to repeal that law was defeated by 20 percent.

A federal judge refused Friday to lift an injunction preventing Oregon's doctor-assisted suicide law from taking effect. U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan said that while he does not dispute there is public support for physician-assisted suicide, he remains convinced the Oregon law should not take effect ''due to possible inadequacy of the safeguards in Measure 16 and the risk that error will cause deaths.'' Measure 16 was approved by Oregon voters in November 1994.

Twenty states joined Friday in urging the Supreme Court to reject the notion that terminally ill people have a constitutional right to doctor-assisted suicide. ''At stake . . . are the lives of . . . those who wish to die and those who wish to live no matter what their circumstance,'' the nine justices were told in two friend-of-the-court briefs. The court last month agreed to decide by July, in cases from New York and Washington state, whether states may prohibit doctors from prescribing life-ending drugs for mentally competent but terminally ill patients who no longer want to live.

PARIS -- The Netherlands' main legislative body Tuesday approved a bill making mercy killing and doctor-assisted suicide far easier, once again displaying the Dutch penchant for pushing the boundaries of conventional thinking on controversial social topics. Tuesday's vote, by the lower house of parliament, would essentially legalize what has in fact been a longstanding practice in the Netherlands. Doctors are rarely prosecuted for performing assisted suicides for terminally ill patients, but the new law would lay out guidelines to regulate the termination of life.

A federal judge Thursday upheld New York state's ban on doctor-assisted suicide, paving the way for the matter to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa dismissed a suit that challenged the ban as unconstitutional - the second such federal case - holding that the type of doctor-assisted suicide at issue in New York is not a constitutional right.In May, U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein in Seattle reached the opposite conclusion, striking down a Washington state law banning doctor-assisted suicide on grounds it violated the 14th Amendment.

A Canadian member of parliament wept Monday as he told how he held the country's most famous euthanasia activist in his arms as she died peacefully in a doctor-assisted suicide.Svend Robinson called for doctor-assisted suicide to be legalized and said he committed no crime by helping and comforting Sue Rodriguez, at her deathbed Saturday. Police say they are investigating Robinson's role in the case.Rodriguez, who suffered from Lou Gehrig's disease, a usually fatal nervous system disorder, put the right-to-die issue on the national agenda.

Eat your fill of corn while listening to country music at the annual Zellwood Sweet Corn Festival.The folks in northwest Orange County will be serving up their vegetable of choice from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the festival grounds on Ponkan Road.There will be more than 200,000 ears of sweet corn for festival-goers to enjoy.On Saturday, Montgomery Gentry will perform at 3 p.m. and John Michael Montgomery at 4:30 p.m. Sunday's line- up will have Daryle Singletary performing at 3 p.m. and Mark Chesnutt at 4:30 p.m.Those attending are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets.

SAN FRANCISCO - Most Californians would offer terminally ill patients the option of doctor-assisted suicide, according to a poll released Friday. ``These poll results show that an overwhelming majority of Californians - 71 percent - believe physician-assisted dying should be an available option for mentally competent, terminally ill patients,'' said Dr. Fred Marcus, president of the San Mateo, Calif.,-based Death with Dignity National Center. The poll, conducted by a Santa Monica-based firm, was released at the start of the California Conference on Physician Assisted Dying.

This time the words seem almost understated. ''Groundbreaking'' and ''landmark'' barely describe how much the top-ography has now changed, how deeply the American landscape of dying is being re-contoured.In Oregon, the people have taken death in their own hands. For the second time in three years, they have voted in favor of legalizing doctor-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients.Just three years ago, a controversial referendum passed by a slim margin of 2 percent. But this year, a heavily financed attempt to repeal that law was defeated by 20 percent.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling Thursday on assisted suicide will have virtually no bearing on a similar question pending before the Florida Supreme Court, experts say.In the Florida case, Charles Hall, a Citrus County restaurant manager dying of AIDS, is asking the state's justices to declare as unconstitutional the 132-year-old Florida statute making ''assisted self-murder'' a crime.But Hall's lawyer, Robert Rivas of Boca Raton, said the question before Florida's high court differs from the one before the U.S. Supreme Court because it centers on the strong right to privacy in Florida's constitution.

In his final week of life, Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, dying of cancer, wrote to the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices and urged them to reject the notion that dying people have a right to doctor-assisted suicide.''Creating a new right to assisted suicide will endanger society and send a false signal that a less than 'perfect' life is not worth living,'' Bernardin wrote last November.But this week a group of doctors will tell the high court that, in effect, there is such a right. They are challenging state laws in New York and Washington that forbid them to prescribe life-ending drugs to mentally competent but terminally ill people who want to die.An emotional national debate has simmered for several years over the issue, mainly because of the activities of Jack Kevorkian, a Michigan pathologist who has admitted helping at least 45 people commit suicide since 1990.

Twenty states joined Friday in urging the Supreme Court to reject the notion that terminally ill people have a constitutional right to doctor-assisted suicide. ''At stake . . . are the lives of . . . those who wish to die and those who wish to live no matter what their circumstance,'' the nine justices were told in two friend-of-the-court briefs. The court last month agreed to decide by July, in cases from New York and Washington state, whether states may prohibit doctors from prescribing life-ending drugs for mentally competent but terminally ill patients who no longer want to live.

Last week, Dr. Jack Kevorkian helped two more women commit suicide, just hours before the Michigan governor signed legislation banning physician-assisted suicide. Supporters of Kevorkian say terminally ill people should have the right to decide if they want to die with dignity or suffer their life away, and doctor-assisted suicide would be humane. Others say this would change the role of doctors (they're supposed to save lives) and would give them too much power. What do you think? Should doctors be allowed to help terminally ill patients die?

The debate over the rights of terminally ill patients was raised anew last week with the acquittal of Dr. Jack Kevorkian and by a federal court case. In the first ruling of its kind, a federal judge struck down Washington state's law against doctor-assisted suicide. She said that a dying woman has the right to commit suicide, making a comparison to a patient's right to refuse life support. What do you think? Should terminally ill people have the right to hasten death? Phone by noon Monday; results run in Tuesday's paper.

A federal judge refused Friday to lift an injunction preventing Oregon's doctor-assisted suicide law from taking effect. U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan said that while he does not dispute there is public support for physician-assisted suicide, he remains convinced the Oregon law should not take effect ''due to possible inadequacy of the safeguards in Measure 16 and the risk that error will cause deaths.'' Measure 16 was approved by Oregon voters in November 1994.

Seven doctors joined Dr. Jack Kevorkian on Monday in unveiling guidelines for physician-assisted suicide, saying patients and their doctors, not politicians or prosecutors, should determine when incurably ill people should be helped to die. Other doctors denounced the document as ''totally inadequate'' and criticized doctor-assisted suicide as unethical. At a news conference Monday at the office of Kevorkian's attorney, the group of five medical doctors, a psychotherapist and a psychiatrist detailed the process.